Over 30 vehicles, bulldozers, plows, tractors, generators, and salt scattering trucks have been sent to roads around the capital and Safed. Containers of fuel and diesel fuel have been sent to police to assist people stranded without electricity.
On Saturday morning, a chunk of the country's residents remained without electricity as precipitation continued. While at around 9 a.m., the Israel Electric Corporation reported that 29,600 households were without power, only two-and-a-half hours later the company upgraded that number to 35,000 – or 1.4% of the country's total 2.5 million customers. About 13,000 of these outages were in Jerusalem and 2,400 were in Safed, the company said.
Emphasizing that crews worked throughout the entire night to restore power to customers, the company said that it continues to operate in emergency settings, and that "it will take a long time to fix problems," warning that broken wires pose life threatening dangers.
Due to conditions, Israel Railways said it operated a special train on Saturday departing from Jerusalem toward Haifa.
The first of two special trains departed at its scheduled time of 11:00 a.m. and an additional train will depart at 4:00 p.m. and will stop at the following stations: the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, Beit Shemesh, Lod, Tel Aviv Savidor center, Netanya, Binyamina and Haifa Hof Hakarmel
Due to fears of a potentially overflowing Ayalon River on Friday night – when the river was about 50 centimeters from spilling over – the Israel Police closed a portion of the Ayalon Highway from 9:30 to 11 p.m.
However, after it became clear that the level of the Ayalon River had once again receded, the police reopened the highway to traffic, which was flowing as normal on Saturday morning, according to Netivei Ayalon. At that time, the company said that the Ayalon water level was 170 centimeters below the road.
Treachery on the roads
Police worked to help dozens of drivers stranded on Jerusalem's streets and on the entry roads into the capital as intermittent snow continued to fall on Friday morning. Roads to the capital remained closed Friday morning. In the evening outbound lanes of Route 1 closed again to traffic from Jerusalem in the direction of Tel Aviv.
IDF vehicles and snow plows were also aiding police and municipal employees in efforts to aid motorists.
Ben-Gurion Airport closed on Friday for about an hour due to the storm battering the country.
The Home Front Command set up a control center in Latrun overnight Friday, and deployed units to snow-stricken areas. Drivers stranded on Route 1 and Route 443 at the entrance to Jerusalem were being evacuated to emergency help centers established at the Jerusalem Convention Center, in Mevaseret Zion and at the Ofer military camp.
Some 2,000 stranded motorists in the capital and on the highways leading to the city were rescued by police, IDF and Border Police forces.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat turned to IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz and Jerusalem District police chief Yossi Pariente for help in evacuating the motorists.
"We are currently using all means available to save the people stuck in the storm. Only after the weather calms will we be able to open all of the roadways in the city," Barkat said Friday morning, adding that the city was facing "a battle against a rare storm, the likes of which we have never seen."
The municipality called on drivers to avoid coming to Jerusalem and instructed the city's residents to stay off the roads until the storm had subsided.
Due to heavy rains and snow conditions in many parts of the country, Police
issued a general advisory on Friday morning for the public not to leave their homes.
issued a general advisory on Friday morning for the public not to leave their homes.
Police said that there was an increased risk of fatality for drivers in the current conditions.
The Egged bus company announced that it had stopped service to the capital and that it would only restart service on Saturday night contingent on improved conditions.
Jerusalem received between 30 centimeters and half a meter of snow by Friday morning depending on the area in the city, Israel Radio reported.
"We expect difficult weather conditions to continue, and we're asking all civilians to listen to instructions from emergency services and not come to Jerusalem," an IDF source said on Friday. The army has gone on a state of alert on the Golan Heights due to the storm, and has deployed dozens of rescue crews and heavy vehicles there on standby. "We are more experienced with dealing with this kind of weather in the Golan," the source said.
Some ten centimeters of snow had accumulated Friday morning in the northern Golan Heights from Kibbutz Ortal northwards.
A number of area roads were partially closed and snow removal was in progress. Public transportation was shut down in the northern Golan until further notice.
The Golan Heights regional municipality warned tourists not to cross fences and walk into fields due to the risk of stepping on mines.
Snow was also coming down Friday morning in Safed, Meron, Sasa, Ma'alot, and in Upper Nazareth and continued throughout the night and into Saturday morning.
Police told motorists not to travel to Safed as the access roads to the city were closed. A number of vehicles were stuck on the roads leading to the Galilee city.
The Forecast
Rain is expected to continue through Saturday until it begins to weaken and eventually ceases by nighttime, the IMS reported.
Snowfall in Jerusalem should turn to sleet by noon and stop by the afternoon. As the skies become clearer, however, the temperatures will remain cold, falling to below zero in many places and causing icy – "black ice" – road conditions, the IMS warned.
Jerusalem post
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